Fly Fishing On The Watauga River In TennesseeThe Watauga River is a tailwater trout fishery located in the upper Northeastern corner of the state of Tennessee near the little town of Elizabethton. It's cold water flows through the Wilburn Dam from Wilburn and Watauga Lakes. The tailwater is stocked with rainbow, brook and brown trout by the (TWRA) Tennessee Wildlife resources Agency. There is a small population of wild trout. Both the rainbow and brown trout holdover from year to year because the stream stays cold even during the summer months. There are some very large brown trout in this river.

The Watauga can be waded when they are not generating power and fished from a small boat anytime. It is best if one generator is running if you intend to use a drift boat. There is a lot of shallow water and canoes and small rafts are popular. There is not a great deal of access for the wading angler but a few locations exit. The main attraction is the opportunity to catch a big brown trout.

Caution should be used anytime you are fishing a tailwater, so be sure to check on the discharge schedule and keep an eye out for changes in the depth. Fly fishing the Watauga River can be dangerous if you are not careful wading.

Fly Fishing Guide to the Watauga River:Fly fishing the Watauga River Tailwater is considered to be a little on the difficult side by many anglers. Thetrout can become selective on certain insects and other foods. Some areas of the stream are rather smooth flowing, making it easier for the trout to see the fly in detail as well as anglers.

Conflicting currents are common and requires good line handling techniques to get a drag free drift. The river consist of some fast runs and long sections of riffles but also some large, long pools. Some sections flow fast and some slow, depending on the location. Each section requires different techniques and strategies for success.

The most important factor in strategies are the flows. It is very important to get the release schedule from the TVA. It is usually fairly accurate. It determines how you can fish the river, meaning if you can wade it or you have to use a boat. Most of the time, the best method is to fish the river from a drift boat. It allows you to cover more water and provides many more opportunities than wading. Of course, drift boats can anchor and the anglers wade where the action is hot. Several different sections of the river can be floated.

Public access from the bank is very limited. There are only a few places that isn't limited by private property. There are some pull off areas along the Wilburn Dam Road. You can access the stream from the Wilburn Dam parking area. There is access on the Blevins Road. There is access at the Hunter Bridge and some access on highway #400.

Watauga River Hatches:Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Watauka River and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you wantto fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726

The main hatch that occurs on the Watauga River is the Sulphur. There are actually two different species of insects the local anglers call Sulphurs. One is called an Eastern Pale Evening Dun in most parts of the Eastern United States. The true Sulphur is the is thedorothea species the huge Ephemerellagenus of mayflies. The other insect called a Sulphur by the locals it the invariaspecies of the Ephemerella genus of the Ephemerellidae family of mayflies. Both look much alike and both species are plentiful. They do have slightly different behavior patterns. The Eastern Pale Evening Duns prefer faster water than the true Sulphurs. These two hatches last a very long time on the Watauga. They usually start in May and continue off and on into the early Fall months.

Other than the Sulphurs, there are some very good Blue-winged Olive hatches that take place. There are several species called BWOs including the Eastern Blue-winged olive species. The hatch start taking place in November and continue all winter and spring month through the month of June.

Seasons:The fly-fishing season is year-round on the Watauga River.Winter:The Watauga River fishes good throughout the winter months. Midges represent the bulk of the aquatic insect food supply.Spring:Springtime brings about a nice sulphur hatch and some good dry fly fishing.

Hatches continued:Little Black Caddis start hatching in April. This is a very good hatch that is called the Mother's day hatch in some parts of the nation. It last about a month. When it finishes, various species of Cinnamon Caddis start hatching. They hatch last through the month of May.

Black flies are another source of food for the trout. Trout eat the Black Fly larvae, pupae and the adults. The colder parts of the year is black fly season but imitations of the larvae will take trout all year long.

The river also supports plenty of scuds. Imitations of scuds usually work best starting in May but you can catch trout all year long on them.

Often times, in fact more often than not, when there are no large aquatic insect hatches taking place, the midge is king on the Watauga River. Imitations of the larvae, pupae and adults will catch trout throughout the season. Cream midges are the most common ones but there are also some light green midges and plenty of blood midges, or red midge larvae and pupae. The adults that hatch from the blood midge pupae are black.

The Watauga River also has a lot of different types of baitfish and sculpin. That's the main reason the brown trout grow to large sizes. The large browns will also eat crayfish and the river has plenty of them.

The stream produces trout throughout the summer months. Terrestrials imitations become the main dry flies used during the Summer.Fall:Autumn provides the next best time to fish the Watauga Tailwater. The weather and discharges are usually very stable and dependable.

At the time I published this website, we had only fished this stream about six times. Our efforts were not made towards catching a large brown trout. We haven’t had much luck in catching larger browns using dry flies and luck is what it will take to do that on dry flies.

Because the stream has very good hatches for a tailwater, we have stuck with dries on our few trips. Streamers and nymphs are much more effective for the larger browns. We have caught some browns up to fourteen inches and of course, a lot of stocker rainbows and smaller browns. We have notfished the river from a drift boat and as already mentioned, floating the stream is the best way to fish it. The odds of hooking a large brown on a streamer are considered very good according to the anglers we have talked to that frequently fish thisstream.

Guide, continued:I think any angler would be interested in trying for one of the Watauga's large holdover brown trout. It is a beautiful little river. This is especially true in the trophy section of the stream. It is very near the South Holston River tailwater, so a visiting angler could easily fish both tailwaters although I wouldn’t advise that for a one-day trip.

I definitely rate it as a good “destination” stream along with the South Holston. By "destination stream" I mean a stream that is worth the time and effort it takes to travel there to fish it.

Options For Selecting Flies:1. Email us (sales@perfectflystore.com)with the dates you will be fishing this stream and we will send you a list of our fly suggestions. Please allow up to 24 hours for a response.

2. Call us 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide which flies you need.

3. Email us (sales@perfectflystore.com)with a budget for flies and we will select them to match the budget and get them to you in time for your fly fishing trip.

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Headlines:The river is still turning out some nice trout for our customers. We received two more good reports from this past week. Sculpin streamers caught the larger trout. Little Sister Caddisfly pupa and adults caught the majority of the fish caught. There is less rain predicted this coming week. Keep up with the latest info on the river from our weekly updated fishing report linked above.